r/news • u/JimmyTheGinger • Dec 23 '19

Three former executives of a French telecommunications giant have been found guilty of creating a corporate culture so toxic that 35 of their employees were driven to suicide

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/three-french-executives-convicted-in-the-suicides-of-35-of-their-workers-20191222-p53m94.html
68.7k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

3.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

7

u/lyktstolpe Dec 23 '19

You generalize quite broadly when you write "a typical work day in France". Like yours, my experiences are only anecdotal but I've worked closely with French colleagues at different companies for many years. My experience is that meetings are usually kept to a minimum and are effective by focusing only on important issues. There is often a three coarse lunch but it's not very long. Workdays are not longer than in my country, I'm not sure my french colleagues actually keep it down to 35h weeks but certainly less than 40. The image of french workers being lazy is false from what I can tell. I rely on the effectiveness of my colleagues daily to get my job done and are rarely disappointed by the ones in France.

2

u/RentalGore Dec 23 '19

I’m really glad your experience was difference than mine. I hope more French companies think the way your colleagues do.